Meeting your Gastronomical Match

Last Friday, the Mental Health team from Paz y Esperanza and I went out to Cangari. It is one of the small pueblos that we visit every two weeks. I love going there. It is such a priveledge to be a part of the process of recovery, healing, and reconciliation with them. While there we meet with a group of women, and this one just happens to have some pretty fabulous and insightful male members too. They are all victims of the political violence in some form or another. We accompany and make space for them to share their feelings and learn how to take care of one another and maintain that group and safe space, long after we are gone.
Now at the end of each session we all share in a collaborative feast that the people have prepared. We bring part of the ingredients (usually the harder to find ones) and the people provide the rest.
A novel concept. I have always thoroughly enjoyed what they prepare, and they always give me so much and then when I finish they want to give me more. All of this after they call me their gordita or little fat person. I take it as a term of endearment because typically the person referring to me as their gordita is an equally short, equally round, and just as jovial as I am Peruvian woman.
So on this particular Friday I met my gastronomical or culinary match. I want to say again that I find it important to eat what is offered and put in front of you, especially in missional situations and relationship building, but also because these men and women are my friends. I would NEVER want to offend them, and I think they feel likewise. Mama Ricardina opened the pot that was the size of a small volkswagon and there it was...IN ALL THEIR GLORY...tripa or tripe. It was a dish called Cau-Cau. It has never been one of my favorites, butI ate it, and now here it was again. Cau-Cau is potatoes (of course), carrots, and peas served over white rice with a stock like sauce and some oregano. Then there is the meaty part. The TRIPE...in this case Cau-Cau´s favorite partner in the pot...SHEEP INTESTINE.
I want to remind you that the folks in Cangari ALWAYS give me this huge portion, like I do not get enough to eat. For some reason Friday night was no different and I got less potatoes and a heaping helping of Sheep intestine. Milagros looks at my bowl and loudly says ¨Hey you got alota tripe!¨I was sarcastically thinking ¨Gee Aren´t I the big winner.¨ I just was not having that I just won the culinary lottery feeling though. I think I am going to add this to my list of crosses to bear this year. I will call it the Cangari Tripe Incident. We reflected a little on Simon of Cyrene over Holy Week, so that is where that comes from. I mean I have eaten the tainted pork this year and drank the well water, and consumed numerous dishes that I just ate before I asked, but this ocassion is sticking around. Why is that? Perhaps you as a reader have some insight.
I was none too excited, but I ate all of the potatoes, carrots, peas, and rice. Then there was the tripa staring me down. Can´t you hear the deuling Gunsmoke music in the background? Doo Doo Doo. It was tumble weeds at 10 paces. I ate a few pieces, and I think the thought of what those little puppies used to contain did me in. My stomach gurgled. I couldn´t eat anymore. I began looking for the dog that hangs out under the chairs. Darn it! No where to be found...thanks for the loyalty, Rover. That is when I turned around with the bowl in my hand and Mamà Ricardina and Mamà Salome said ¨Don´t you like it?¨ I was like of course I li- (interrupted by Milagros) ¨She doesn´t like tripe!¨ Thanks alot I said through my teeth with a smile as I elbowed her and she chuckled. I felt so bad, as Mamà Ricardina took my plate from me.
I still think about that experience and reflect on it. I am hoping that by next Friday Mamà Ricardina will have found it in her heart to forgive me for not eating her tripe. It is not the way that I would have wanted things to be, but they turned out that way. I was sufficiently embarrassed, even if the ¨flappy gum¨ folks in my group were not. I think it is important to eat what is put in front of you. It is an offering that they make to you. They get excited when you eat it all and ask for seconds. For some of these folks, it is all they have. I have encountered some pretty unconventional things to eat here in Peru. Cow face soup, alpaca, tripe, pig skin and corn chowder called mondongo. I try them, and some I like others I try them, do not like them, and try to avoid. Cau-Cau is one of them. There is just something about TRIPE or sheep intestines that I just cannot get my mind or mouth around. I met my gastronomical or culinary match in the Cangari Tripe Incident.